Process of making welt-innersoles.



W. A. KNIFEx PROCESS OF MAKING WELT INNERSOLES. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 16. 1914.

lglQQfiiZOe V Patented June 29, 1915.

M37266 sea; mazemiafl,

Mam aw We WILLIAM A. KNIFE, or WARD HILL, mnssacncsnrrs.

FfiOCESS OF MAKING WELT-INNERSOLES.

incense.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June as, 1915.

"Application filed November 16, 1914. Serial No. 872,349.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM A. KNIPE, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Ward Hill, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Processes of Making Welt- In'nersoles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to certain improve-v ments in process of making welt inner-soles,

and, particularly, to those partly composed of canvas.

Prior to m invention it has been customary to reinforce inner-soles with canvas in various ways, the processes in most general use involving the turning up of a lip from the leather-portion of the sole,

said lip being covered with canvas to strengthen the same. v

It has further been attempted to secure a flexible inner sole, and to avoid the use of a leather sole section, Which is sufiiciently thick to permit a lip to be turned up therefrom, by attaching the upper and welt to the canvas covering alone, but, so fares I am aware, these methods have not gone into extensive use.

In order that the welt and upper may be i attached to the inner sole with an ordinary shoe-sewing machine, or Welter, it is practically necessary to provide a lip or channel, or other continuous abutment, on the inner sole, through which the stitches are passed, which is sutliciently rigid to enable the operator to ress the same against a the channehguide o the sewing machine with some force, so that the shoe will be accurately guided with relation to the machine during the sewing operation. Ordinarily, canvas is not, of itself, sufliciently inflexible or still to provide a guiding lip of the stability necessary to hold the shoe in place, and, to obviate this difficulty, it has been attempted to reinforce a canvas lip by sewing on a strip of leather or some other material, or by sewing in a'fold in the canbility of the "needle being caught in the vas. These methods have been objected to on account of certain mechanical difficulties encountered in the preparation of the sole, and the incidental labor expense, and on account of the fact that the stitohes,.which were necessary to hold the strip, or fold in place, are necessarily so disposed that they must be crossed by the stitches which attached the Upper, with the incidental lia-- stitches which hold the strip or fold, and the liability of such stitches being out by the needle.

The objects of my invention are to produce a welt-inner sole, which may be composed of a thin, flexible leather section, such. as flesh splits, and a textile section, to which alone the upper and welt may be at.-

tached, which may be produced at substan- Further, and more specific objects are toprovide a method of making a form of inner-sole having a stitch-receiving lip, which is formed wholly from the canvas sole section and is sufficiently rigid to serve as a substantial guide for the sewing-machine members, without the employment of reinforcing strips, or folds, or of stitches which may interfere with the upper-attaching operation, or may become out when said operation is performed.

A further object is to provide a method of making such solos which shall be simple and inexpensive, as compared with the cost of making similar soles by other methods.

I accomplish these objects by connecting to a thin, sole-shaped leather section, preferablyby means of a row vof stitches extending at a short distance from the sole edge, a textile section of similar shape, which is composed of two layers of textile material, as canvas, adhcsivcly connected by an intermediate thin sheet or layer of gutta-pcrcha,

or similar materiahwhich is somewhat elastie at ordinary temperatures, particularly when formed in thin sheets, but which loses its elasticity and becomes plastic when Figure 1 is aiplan view of the textilesolesection, showing a portion thereof artially cut away.- Fig. 2 is a plan View 0 the sole after the parts have been assembled. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the sole after the lip has been turned up. Fig. 4: is a detail sectional View, on an enlarged scale, taken at the line 44 of Fig. 2. Fig. 5' is a similar view, taken at the line 55. of Fig. 3. Fig. 6 is a 'detail sectional view showing the welt and upper attached to the inner sole.

According to my invention, I provide a sole-shaped section a, which is referably composed of thin, soft, flexible l zaather, as flesh splits, although it maybe made of any sheet material, which has suflicient flexibility and stability to be available for the purpose, 2'. e., the invention does not depend, necessarily, on the use of leather for this purpose, although, it is, at present, believed to be preferable.

I further providea textile section which.

is composed of two sheets of canvas 6, 0, ad-

hesively connected to each other by a thin layer (1 of gutta-percha, this process being performed by feeding a thin sheet of the gutta-percha'betwe'en the two sheets of canva's and passing them between heated rolls, so that the gutta-percha is caused to adhere to the adjacent surfaces of the canvas, so as to connect them together and form a waterproof sheet, which is somewhat stiff at ordinary temperatures and has a substantial de' ree of elasticity.

' aid textile section is cut out in the sole shape similar to that of the section a, the

forepart thereof being preferably slightly larger, so that, when placed in coincidence with the leather section,-its edge portion will protrude slightly beyond the edge thereof,as indicated in Figs. 2 and 4. 'Said sections, having then been laid flat, one on the other, are connected by a row of stitches e, which extend about the sole forepart to the rear end of the shank at an approximately uniform distance from the sole edge, said distance corresponding, approximately, to the line of the inner side of the lip, or bottom of the channel, with which welt inner-soles are usually provided; In practice, these stitches are located somewhat farther fromthe sole edge in the shank than in the forepart.

The sole is then heated, preferably by the application of steam, to a temperature between 120 and 212 F'., so that the guttapercha loses'its elasticity and becomes soft and pliable, or plastic, and, while in this condition, the edge portion ofthe textile sole section is turned up from the leather section a, to the row of stitches e, and bent back over said stitches, at asharp angle, nearly down onto the inner ortion of the sole, as shown in Figs. 3 and 5. This lip-turning operation is preferably done in a special machine, having many of the characteristics of a lip-turning machine, which l have made for the urpose, which has an anvil, as m,

onto which the lip is turned and pressed.

It will be noted that, in raising up and bending back the lip thus formed, the under textile sheet 0 will bebent about the upper.

caused to slide to a slight extent on the corresponding portion of the upper sheet, so that their edges, which were previously flush, as indicated in Fig. 4, will no longer be so, the lip of the under sheet 0 being drawn back on the upper sheet, as indicated in Fig. 5. The gutta-perchais then permitted to cool while the parts are thus held,

so that it sets in the position in which it was bent, and the edge portions of. the textile sheets readhere in the position to which they are drawn, as above explained. l The lip which has been turned up at the edge of the textile section will then be retained in this position both by the stiflness or elasticity of the gutta-percha sheet, or" its tendency to its position on the edge-portion of the.

other sheet by the adhesion of the gutta- I percha. That is, a force tending to lay the turned-up edge flat again,would tend to compress or wrinkle the edge of the inner textile sheet. The hpthus formed will thus be held in the turned-' back position with a stifiness equal at least to that of leather, and a channel,'which is V-shaped, in cross-section, will be formed between the lip and the flat portion of the sole, the bottom of which will be at the base ofthe lip, just beyond the row of stitches e, which connect the two sole sections together. In attaching the sole thus formed to the upper and welt, the channel guide of the machine will be placed in the channel thus formed by the lip, and the attaching stitches f will be passed through the base of the lip just beyond the stitches e, as indicated in Fig. 6, said lip also serving as a substantial guide, or abutment for holding the shoe in the desired position in the sewing-machine during this operation. r

As the gutta-pereha sheet is very thin, it

does not impair the flexibility of the sole to .quite as strong as an ordinary leather inner ortion ansaaao sole, or one combined with a singie thickness of'canvas. For this reason, and for the reason that the upper attaching stitches are located at the base of the lip which is turned up, the intermediate portions across the sole 'bein flat, the upper is. held firmly in place, so t at the shoe is prevented from stretching, or being pulled out of shape, by reason of the stretching of the inner sole or yielding of the stitches therein.

- An inner sole may be made as above dea textile sheet, having an adhesively connected coating of a material which is somewhat elastic at ordinary temperatures and plastic when heated, connecting said sections at points removed from the edges thereof, to provide said textile section with a disconnected edge-portion extending about the sole-forepart, heating said coating to render it plastic and-turning said edge-portion of said textile section up from the other section, to provide an attaching lip, and then permitting said coating to become cool while the lip is held in said turned-up position.

2. The process of making welt inner-soles which consists in superimposing two soleshaped sections, one of which is composed of a textile sheet having a thin, adhesively connected coating of gutta-percha, connecting said sections at points removed from the edges thereof, to provide said textile section with a disconnected edge-portion extending about the solc-forep'art, heating said coating to render it plastic and turning said edgeportion of said textile section up from the other section, to provide an attaching lip, and then permitting said coating to become cool while the lip is held in said turned-up position.

3. The process of making welt inner-soles which consists in superimposing two soleshaped sections, one of which is composed of two textile sheets adhesively connected by a thin layer of material which is somewhat flexible at ordinary temperatures andplastic when heated, connecting said sections at points approximately uniformly removed from the edges thereof, about the sole forepart, heating said sections to render said layer of material plastic and turning the free edge-portion of said textile section up from the other section to form an attaching lip, and then permitting said layer of mateshaped sections, of a textile rial to become cool while the lip is held in said turned-up position.

a. The process of making welt inner-soles which consists in superimposing two soleshaped sections, one of which is composed of two textile sheets adhesively connected by a thin layer of gutta-percha, connecting said sections at points approximately uni formly removed from' the edges thereof about the fore'part, heating said sections to render said gutta-percha plastic and turning the free edge-portion of the textile section up from the other section, to form an attaching lip, and then permitting the gutta-percha layer to become cool while the lip is held in said turned-up position.

The process of making welt inner-soles which consists in superimposing two soleone-of which is composed sheet having, 'adhesively connected thereto, a thin coating of a material which is somewhat elastic, at ordinary temperatures, and plastic when heated, connecting said sections by a row of stitches which extend thereabout at an approximately uniform distance from the edges thereof, heating said sections to render said coating material plastic, turning the free edge-portion of said textile section up from the other section, while heated, to form a lip and then permitting the parts to become cool while in such position.

and inwardly thereover,

6. The process of making welt inner-soles, Y

which consists in superimposing two soleshaped sections, one composed of two tex- I tile sheets, adhesively connected by a thin intermediate sheet of a material which is' somewhat elastic at ordinary temperatures. and becomes plastic when heated, connecting said sections by a row of stitches which extend thereabout, adjacent and at an approximately uniform distance from the edge thereof, to provide a free edge-portion on said textile section, heating said textilesection to render said material plastic, turning said free edge-portion up to said stitches and bending it inwardly thereover while heated, to form a lip and then permitting said material to become cool while said lip is in raised position.

7. The process of making welt inner-soles which consists in placing two sole-shaped sections so that they lie fiat one on the other, one of which is composed of two textile sheets connected by an intermediate layer of material which is somewhat flexible at ordinary temperatures and plastic when heated, connecting said sections at points removed from the edge thereof, heating said sections, to render said layer plastic and neutralize the force of adhesion between ass? AV ILABLE con? that thedg-portiori of one sheet is per- I mitted to slide on the Corresponding portion of the other sheet and then permitting the parts to cool and restore the adhesion between said edge-portions While in said turned-up position. I I

The process of providing a sole with a to cause them to slide one on the other and permitting the parts to cool while thus bent to cause said edge-portions to readhere and the gutta-percha layer to set at said angle.

. 9. The process of making Welt inner soles which consists in superimposing two soleshaped sections, one of which 1s composed of two textile sheets having an adhesive material interposed therebetween, connecting said sections by a row of stitches Which pass through said sections at points approximately uniformly removed from the edges thereof, about the entire sole forepart, turning the edge-portion of said textile-section up from the other section to said row of stitches while the adhesive material between said edge-portion of said sheets is in a sulficiently non-adhesive condition to permit the sheets of said edge-portion to slide one on the other, and then permitting the sheets at said edge-portion to adhere in the upturned position, to hold said edge-portion in said position and form an attaching lip.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM A. KN-IPE.

Witnesses:

L. H. HARRIMAN, H. B. DAVIS. 

